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On Saturday night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, you’d figure something had to give.

On this evening the Leafs weren’t in a giving — or giveaway — mood. Well, at least not in the opening frame. Just one (1) turnover, a tidy reversal of fretful trends this season.

Bewildering how they collapsed into utter disarray thereafter.

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Won the period. Lost the game 6-4.

“We didn’t have enough jump, enough juice, enough legs. The game got out of hand. We made it a lot closer probably than it was at the end,” said coach Mike Babcock afterwards.

They’d gone into the dressing room after 20 minutes having prevailed over the Blues in their corresponding strengths, savouring a 1-0 lead off the rush and off the stick of rookie D-man Andreas Borgman. And where the heck did that come from?

A wicked shot on the fly from 40 feet, orchestrated by a lulu of a perfectly placed pass by Matt Martin after the confused Blues overplayed the puck in the neutral zone.

Borgman is a crusher, built like a brick you-know-what. Who knew he had a blazer shot, a la Auston Matthews, in his arsenal? Snap and the left-handed delivery fooled Jake Allen, over the blocker and just under the crossbar.

A distant memory by the time the game was done.

Second career NHL goal for the hard-nosed, heavily-tattooed Swede and at least this one he was able to celebrate in real time. His first, against San Jose last Monday, had been only belatedly rewarded, originally credited to Nazem Kadri.

So, unexpected offence from an unlikely source, a pretty thing where Babcock had for the past several days been preaching the un-pretty — cycle-cycle-cycle, pressure with the forecheck, force puck squirts, rinse, repeat.

Except, got to get the puck into the opponent’s zone first and follow it there aggressively.

The slim lead was erased early in the second period on a rotten piece of luck, ensuing from a deflection off James van Riemsdyk’s stick, Freddie Andersen helpless when Vladimir Tarasenko scooted in out of nowhere to pounce on the bitty rebound.

And then so much of what the Leafs had done vigilantly well in the first period went all topsy-turvy, chronically bottled up in their own zone.

More lousy kismet on another Blue foray shortly thereafter as Morgan Rielly got knocked off his feet, the play swirling on around him, Matthews indecisive on where to focus his coverage, allowing a crucial split-second of time and space after Andersen made the initial save. The rebound off Brayden Schenn’s bid was gifted to an utterly unharassed Joel Edmundson, the blue-liner having charged deep into the Toronto end, looking at a yawningly open net, Andersen with no chance at resetting himself.

Which was a pity because the Leaf goalie had looked so sound and sturdy to that point, riding a wave of self-assurance following a pair of excellent starts in the last week.

Déjà vu Blues three minutes later — Toronto back on their heels for nearly all the second period — and a quintet of Leafs making like statues, feet not moving, practically spectators to events. Three Leafs — count ’em — standing, straggling, within touching distance of their stopper and apparently rooted, allowing Alex Pietrangelo to fandango in alone with an eye-popping manoeuvre around Andersen and somehow stuff the puck in short side.

Fourteen goals from the St. Louis blue line before they encountered Toronto. Maybe those sniper rearguards deserved more heads-up attention, no? Eleven of 24 St. Louis shots through 40 minutes came from the defence, two of them ending up behind Andersen.

Three unanswered goals in the second period, which has been a sucking vortex for the Leafs — minus-7 on the middle ledger before the Blues added to that column.

Inexplicable what happened to Toronto in play buttressing those two periods. They shifted from generally poised — notwithstanding three straight shifts where they scarcely penetrated the offensive zone, successfully smothering a couple of St. Louis power plays, and at a middling-to-poor league No. 22 on the man-advantage stats not very scary — to discombobulated.

Where earlier they were forcing the Blues to attempt passes through a thicket of sticks, suddenly seams cracked open and passing lanes blossomed. Not this time.

Third periods have been similarly productive for Toronto. And they did muster a brace of goals. But by then they were chasing the game and never catching it.

Just 1:22 in, Kadri attempted a weird puck manipulation in the Toronto slot, no-look through his own legs, except it ended up square on the wood of Magnus Paajarvi, who one-timed it past Andersen, unassisted.

Tyler Bozak, struggling through a miserable season and demoted to the fourth line, got that one back in under a minute, both starting and ending the play — Bozak to Mitch Marner to Bozak — as Allen was knocked over in the crease by his own man.

Fourteen seconds later, the Blues struck again, Vladimir Sobotka making it 5-2. Bench penalty to Toronto for a faceoff violation and Pietrangelo stepped into his second goal of the night after Andersen had taken a slash across the forehead. Unfathomably, Babcock chose not to challenge it for goaltender interference.

Which might have made a difference — or not — because Toronto buried a pair behind Allen in a three-minute span, Connor Brown and Bozak with his second, Matt Martin racking up a third assist.

“I think we just left Freddie out to dry, really,” Martin said afterwards. “It seems to be happening a lot. So many chances right in front of the net. We’ve got a lot to clean up. I think we have to simplify. When we get pucks in, we dominate. If we don’t, we struggle. That’s really the moral of the story.”

It could truthfully be said of these Leafs that they don’t quit and their offence is so potent that fat deficits don’t seem insurmountable.

But goodness, they do put themselves into deep holes and the defence is a mess, no matter which pairings Babcock devises.

A most dissatisfying conclusion to Toronto’s four-game road swing from the West Coast to Gateway City, 1-3 in the last week, 1-5-0 in their last half-dozen games.

Keep it simple, Babcock had pleaded. Instead, they’ve been playing like simpletons.

The early October gloss had definitely rubbed off.

This one got plug-ugly.

“We’re fortunate the trip’s over,” said Babcock. “We got to go home and . . . get regrouped and get back on track. We were sitting pretty good a week ago, or 10 days ago or however long it was. Now we’ve got to get things fixed up and get some swagger back in our game.”

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